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Mediocrity: Why Is It so Fashionable?

December 20, 2017

Let’s talk about mediocrity. Let’s talk about art, too. I’m looking at the charts for the week of April 30, 2016. The song at the top is a song by Rihanna (feat. Drake) called “Work”. Let’s take a look at the lyrics.

Work, work, work, work, work, work
He said me haffi
Work, work, work, work, work, work!
He see me do me
Dirt, dirt, dirt, dirt, dirt, dirt!
So me put in
Work, work, work, work, work, work
When you ah gon’
Learn, learn, learn, learn, learn
Meh nuh care if him
Hurt, hurt, hurt, hurt, hurting

Now, let’s take a look at the song that was at the top of the list in the same week 30 years ago. I discover it was “5150” by Van Halen. Let’s take a look at the lyrics of that song.

The love in me is never straight and narrow
Unless the love is tried and true
You take a chance with new beginnings
Still we try, win or lose, take the highs
With the blues

It might not be something that would raise Samuel Coleridge from his grave, but hey, I doubt it would make him roll over in it, either.

Parthenon, the very opposite of mediocrity
Parthenon, the very opposite of mediocrity.
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The Age of Treason

November 22, 2017

I am a writer – a writer in the age of treason. That’s the word I would choose if I had to pick only one to best describe me professionally (whatever that means nowadays). I write novels of all kinds or genres, from speculative science fiction to supernatural horror and from soul-searching literary fiction to (yes, once even that) romantic dramas.

I am also an academic, specializing in Gothic and horror fiction (parenthetically, it is incredible how much more effortless it is to write 250 pages of fiction compared to the same number of a doctoral dissertation; don’t try this at home, kids). So, writing has “always” been something I’ve been drawn to.

Hence, writing here is really nothing different than what I am already doing, but perhaps in a more stream-of-consciousness, flexible kind of way. To a certain extent, fictional writing can be free (particularly if we’re talking about literary fiction). But it also has certain constraints which I am trying to bypass here. There is more, however.

age of treason
Writing. Creating worlds.

The Age of Treason: Stupid Loudmouths and Intelligent Sufferers

The title of this first post is The Age of Treason. Forgive the shamelessly obvious pun, but sometimes I can’t help but feel that something is rotten in our world, now, in the year 2017.

No, no, I’m not talking about the usual aspects – there have always been wars, suffering, injustice, and pain. Furthermore, there have always been stupid loudmouths and intelligent but, alas, silent sufferers. What bothers me the most is how the stupid have become even louder and the wise even more marginalized. How is that connected to writing, you will ask.

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